Eighty years after Lynches River Electric Cooperative was formed with the mission to bring electricity to rural communities, the member-owned power association announced that its board of trustees voted to provide high-speed, fiber internet to its service areas in the form of RiverNet Connect. At RiverNet Connect, we believe that every single one of our community members should have the opportunit
y to have access to the same quality internet as the people living in Charlotte or Columbia. Our goal is to provide world-class internet to every house, on every dirt road that wants it and we won’t stop until we’ve done just that. RiverNet Connect’s fiber optic internet will bring a new standard of rural broadband to Lancaster, Chesterfield, and Kershaw counties. With fiber, data can be sent up to 1,000 times faster than traditional copper and the service can reach Gigabit (1000 Mbps) speeds and beyond. The network is less prone to slow down when streaming on multiple devices or because more people are connected during certain times of the day. Construction on Phase One began on Feb. 3, 2020. At this time, only LREC members are eligible to receive service through RiverNet Connect. Lynches River Electric Cooperative is the third electric cooperative in South Carolina to start a fiber internet subsidiary, following in the footsteps of Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative and Newberry Electric Cooperative. Members can register their interest and find additional information by visiting join.RiverNetConnect.com.